K K Modi, the chairman of Rs 4,500-crore Modi group, stoutly defends his son Lalit Modi on the IPL imbroglio. Edited excerpts from an interview with Surajeet Das Gupta
Lalit Modi has been attacked for using IPL to benefit his friends and relatives who picked up stakes in franchises and got contracts. What do you say about the allegation?
When IPL was thought, nobody, including Lalit, was sure it would succeed. It was an untested property. He asked me to put in money, for instance, India Cements was looking for a 50 per cent partner and Shah Rukh was looking for investors. I was skeptical and told him that I could invest $10 million provided you cannot find investors at all. He had no choice but to go to his friends and relatives like brother-in-law Chellaram, the GMR family (some members were in the tobacco trade). Otherwise, they would not have come at all.
What have you advised him to do, now that he has been suspended by the IPL governing council?
I was in Australia. I told him to do two things — don’t resign, defend yourself about the allegations made by BCCI. If they don’t accept your explanation then you go to court, need be, to the Supreme Court. You have to redeem your name.
Do you think he made a lot of enemies because he had lost his humility and had become too big?
He was never humble. If you want to build a brand like IPL which is an internationally recognized brand, you have to be aggressive and not humble. Also remember, he wanted to create something bigger than ICL (Indian Cricket League) and was going around the world trying to convince cricket boards that IPL will work. He spent his own money in travelling and even conceptualising the brand. He did not ask for money from BCCI.
Do you think BCCI has wronged him, let him do things and then quietly got him removed when IPL had become a force to reckon with?
The question is that if they had a problem with his way of working or had questions, why did they not ask him after the first IPL and raise these issues. Why are they raising it now?
Will the K K Modi group get into the sports business, considering that you have Lalit’s expertise?
Of course, we would love to. I am ready to invest $100 million and get going and create new properties of sports. But, Lalit has to give time. Also, he cannot do anything in cricket, as that would be a conflict of interest.
